A Book for Kids

Project Gutenberg's A Book for Kids, by C. J. (Clarence Michael James)
Dennis
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Title: A Book for Kids
Author: C. J. (Clarence Michael James) Dennis
Release Date: July 9, 2005 [EBook #16251]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
0. START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BOOK FOR
KIDS ***
Produced by Colin Choat
A Book for Kids by C J Dennis (1921)
reissued as Roundabout (1935)
A very charming gentleman, as old as old could be,
Stared a while,
and glared a while, and then he said to me: "Read your books, and heed
your books, and put your books away, For you will surely need your
books upon a later day."
And then he wheezed and then he sneezed,
and gave me such a look. And he said, "Mark--ME--boy! Be careful of
your book."
A very charming gentleman, indeed, he seemed to be.
He heaved a
sigh and wiped his eye, and then he said to me: "Take your books and
make your books companions--never toys; For they who so forsake
their books grow into gawky boys."
I don't know who he was. Do you?
he snuffled at the end;
And he said, "Mark--ME--boy! Your book

should be your friend."
DEDICATION
To all good children over four
And under four-and-eighty
Be you not over-prone to pore
On matters grave and weighty.
Mayhap you'll find within this book
Some touch of Youth's rare clowning,
If you will condescend to look
And not descend to frowning.
The mind of one small boy may hold
Odd fancies and inviting,
To guide a hand unsure and old
That moves, these days, to writing.
For hair once bright, in days of
yore,
Grows grey (or somewhat slaty)-,
And now, alas, he's over four,
Though under four-and-eighty.
CONTENTS:
Dedication
A Very Charming Gentleman
The Baker
The Dawn Dance

Cuppacumalonga
The Swagman
The Ant Explorer
Riding Song

The Funny Hatter
The Postman
The Traveller
Our Street
The
Little Red House
The Pieman
The Triantiwontigongolope
The
Circus
You and I
Going to School
Hist!
Bird Song
The Music
of Your Voice
The Boy who Rode into the Sunset
The Tram-man

The Axe-man
The Drovers
The Long Road Home
The Band

Bessie and the Bunyip
Good Enough
The Porter
Growing Up


The Unsociable Wallaby
The Song of the Sulky Stockman
Our
Cow
The Teacher
The Spotted Heifers
Tea Talk
The Looking
Glass
Woolloomooloo
The Barber
Farmer Jack
Old Black
Jacko
Bird Song
The Sailor
The Famine
The Feast
Upon the
Road to Rockabout
A Change of Air
Polly Dibbs
Lullaby
The
Publisher
Good Night
THE BAKER
I'd like to be a baker, and come when morning breaks,
Calling out,
"Beeay-ko!" (that's the sound he makes)--
Riding in a rattle-cart that
jogs and jolts and shakes,
Selling all the sweetest things a baker ever
bakes;
Currant-buns and brandy-snaps, pastry all in flakes;
But I wouldn't be a baker if ...
I couldn't eat the cakes.
Would you?
THE DAWN DANCE
What do you think I saw to-day when I arose at dawn?
Blue Wrens
and Yellow-tails dancing on the lawn!
Bobbing here, and bowing
there, gossiping away,
And how I wished that you were there to see
the merry play!
But you were snug abed, my boy, blankets to your chin,
Nor dreamed
of dancing birds without or sunbeams dancing in. Grey Thrush, he
piped the tune for them. I peeped out through the glass Between the
window curtains, and I saw them on the grass--
Merry little fairy folk, dancing up and down,
Blue bonnet, yellow
skirt, cloaks of grey and brown,
Underneath the wattle-tree, silver in
the dawn,
Blue Wrens and Yellow-tails dancing on the lawn.

CUPPACUMALONGA
'Rover, rover, cattle-drover, where go you to-day?'
I go to
Cuppacumalomga, fifty miles away;
Over plains where Summer rains have sung a song of glee, Over hills
where laughing rills go seeking for the sea,
I go to Cuppacumalonga,
to my brother Bill.
Then come along, ah, come along!
Ah, come to Cuppacumalonga!
Come to Cuppacumalonga Hill!
'Rover, rover, cattle-drover, how do you get there?'
For twenty miles I
amble on upon my pony mare,
The walk awhile and talk awhile to country men I know,
Then up to
ride a mile beside a team that travels slow,
And last to
Cuppacumalonga, riding with a will.
Then come along, ah, come along!
Ah, come to Cuppacumalonga!
Come to Cuppacumalonga Hill!
'Rover, rover, cattle-drover, what do you do then?'
I camp beneath a
kurrajong with three good cattle-men;
Then off away at break of day, with strong hands on the reins, To laugh
and sing while mustering the cattle on the plains-- For up to
Cuppacumalonga life is jolly still.
Then come along, ah, come along!
Ah, come to Cuppacumalonga!

Come to Cuppacumalonga Hill!
'Rover, rover, cattle-drover, how may I go too?'
I'll saddle up my
creamy colt and he shall carry you--
My creamy colt who will not bolt, who does not shy nor kick-- We'll
pack the load and take the road and travel very quick.